Thomas Wriothesley 4th Earl of Southampton

Thomas Wriothesley 4thEarl of Southampton was born on 10 March 1607 in Little Shelford.

He was a witness at the execution of Charles 1st on Jan 30 1649 and went on to become the Government's Lord High Treasurer. Thomas Wriothesley created Bloomsbury Square and his title gave the name to Southampton Row in London.

Here he found a retreat after his release from the Tower of London on the accession of James 1st. He has been imprisoned for his part in the Essex Rebellion against Queen Elizabeth and he was lucky to have escaped with his head.

He was a cultured man who was the patron of William Shakespeare. He was also a benefactor of St John's College, Cambridge, where he left his books and illuminated manuscripts. He presented the tenor bell to Little Shelford Church; it is inscribed "Ricardus Hitchfield ne fecit.Henry Wryeste, Earl of Southampton 1612."

Several months after the Restoration, Lord Southampton was appointed Lord High Treasurer (8 September 1660), a position in which he would serve until his death. As the Encyclopædia Britannica notes, Lord Southampton "was remarkable for his freedom from any taint of corruption and for his efforts in the interests of economy and financial order," a noble if not completely objective view of his work as the keeper of the nation's finances. Samuel Pepys admired Southampton's integrity and the stoicism with which he endured his painful last illness, but clearly had doubts about his competence as Treasurer; in particular he graphically described the Council meeting in April 1665 where Southampton helplessly asked him where he was to find the funds requested.